{"id":446,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:04","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=446"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:04","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:04","slug":"51-rishi-bankim-chandra-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17\/51-rishi-bankim-chandra-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","title":{"rendered":"-51_Rishi Bankim Chandra.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

\n
\nRishi Bankim Chandra<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n   
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0  <\/font> <\/span>
\nT<\/font>HERE<\/font><\/b> are many who, lamenting the by-
\ngone glories of this great and ancient nation, speak as if the Rishis of old,
\nthe inspired creators of thought and civilisation, were a miracle of our heroic
\nage, not to be repeated among degenerate men and in our distressful present.
\nThis is an error and thrice an error. Ours is the eternal land, the eternal
\npeople, the eternal religion, whose strength, greatness, holiness may be
\noverclouded but never, even for a moment, utterly cease. The hero, the Rishi,
\nthe .saint, are the natural fruits of our Indian ‘soil; and there has been no
\nage in which they have not been born. Among the Rishis of the later age we have
\nat last realised that we must include the name of the man who gave us the
\nreviving Mantra which is creating a new India, the Mantra Bande Mataram.<\/i>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The Rishi is
\ndifferent from the saint. His life may not have been distinguished by superior
\nholiness nor his character by an ideal beauty. He is not great by what he was
\nhimself but by what he has expressed. A great and vivifying message had to be
\ngiven to a nation or to humanity, and God has chosen this mouth on which to
\nshape the words of the message. A momentous vision had to be revealed; and it
\nis his eyes which the Almighty first unseals. The message which he has
\nreceived, the vision which has been vouchsafed to him, he declares to the world
\nwith all the strength that is in him, and in one supreme moment of inspiration
\nexpresses it in words which have merely to be uttered to stir men’s inmost natures,
\nclarify their minds, seize their hearts and impel them to things which would
\nhave been impossible to them in their ordinary moments. Those words are the Mantra which he
\nwas born to reveal and of that Mantra he is the seer.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>What is it for which
\nwe worship the name of Bankim today? what was his message to us or what the
\nvision which he saw and has helped us to see? He was a great poet, a master of
\nbeautiful language and a creator of fair and gracious dream -figures in the<\/p>\n

\nPage – 344<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

world of imagination; but it is not as a poet, stylist or novelist that Bengal
\ndoes honour to him today. It is probable that the literary critic of the future
\nwill reckon Kapalkundala, Bishabriksha <\/i>and Krishnakanter Will <\/i>as
\nhis artistic masterpieces, and speak with qualified praise of Devi
\nChaudhurani, Ananda Math, Krishnacharit <\/i>or Dharmatattwa. <\/i>Yet it is
\nthe Bankim of these latter works and not the Bankim of the great creative
\nmasterpieces who will rank among the Makers of Modern India. The earlier Bankim
\nwas only a poet and stylist – the later Bankim was a seer and nation-builder.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>But even as a poet and
\nstylist Bankim did a work of supreme national importance, not for the whole of
\nIndia, or only indirectly for the whole of India, but for Bengal which was
\ndestined to lead India and be in the vanguard of national development. No
\nnation can grow without finding a fit and satisfying medium of expression for
\nthe new self into which it is developing – without a language which shall give
\npermanent shape to its thoughts and feelings and carry every new impulse
\nswiftly and triumphantly into the consciousness of all. It was Bankim’s first
\ngreat ser- vice to India that he gave the race which stood in its vanguard such
\na perfect and satisfying medium. He was blamed for corrupting the purity of the
\nBengali tongue; but the pure Bengali of the old poets could have expressed
\nnothing but a conservative and unprogressing Bengal. The race was expanding and
\nchanging, and it needed a means of expression capable of change and expansion.
\nHe was blamed also for replacing the high literary Bengali of the Pundits by a
\nmixed popular tongue which was neither the learned language nor good
\nvernacular. But the Bengali of the Pundits would have crushed the growing
\nrichness, variety and versatility of the Bengali genius under its stiff
\ninflexible ponderousness. We needed a tongue for other purposes than dignified
\ntreatises and erudite lucubrations. We needed a language which should combine
\nthe strength, dignity or soft beauty of Sanskrit with the nerve and vigour of
\nthe vernacular, capable at one end of the utmost vernacular raciness and at the
\nother of the most sonorous gravity. Bankim divined our need and was inspired to
\nmeet it,- he gave us a means by which the soul of Bengal could express itself
\nto itself.<\/p>\n

\nPage -345<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>As he had divined the
\nlinguistic need of his country’s future, so he divined also its political need.
\nHe, first of our great publicists, understood the hollowness and inutility of
\nthe method of political agitation which prevailed in his time and exposed it
\nwith merciless satire in his Lokarahasya <\/i>and Kamalakanter Daptar. <\/i>But
\nhe was not satisfied merely with destructive critism, – he had a positive vision
\nof what was needed for the salvation of the country. He saw that the force from
\nabove must be met by a mightier reacting force from below, – the strength of
\nrepression by an insurgent national strength. He bade us leave
\nthe canine method of agitation for the leonine. The Mother of his vision held
\ntrenchant steel in her twice seventy million hands and not the bowl of the
\nmendicant. It was the gospel of fearless strength and force which he preached
\nunder a veil and in images in Ananda Math <\/i>and Devi Chaudhurani. <\/i>And
\nhe had an inspired unerring vision of the moral strength which must be at the
\nback of the outer force. He perceived that the first element of the moral
\nstrength must be tyaga, <\/i>complete self-sacrifice for the country and
\ncomplete self-devotion to the work of liberation. His workers and fighters for
\nthe motherland are political byragees <\/i>who have no other thought than
\ntheir duty to her and have put all else behind them as less dear and less
\nprecious and only to be resumed when their work for her is done. Whoever loves
\nself or wife or child or goods more than his country is a poor and imperfect
\npatriot; not by him shall the great work be accomplished. Again, he perceived
\nthat the second element of the moral strength needed must be self-discipline
\nand organisation. This truth he expressed in the elaborate training of Devi
\nChaudhurani for her work, in the strict rules of the Association of the "Ananda
\nMath" and in the pictures of perfect organisation which those books
\ncontain. Lastly, he perceived that the third element of moral strength must be
\nthe infusion of religious feeling into patriotic work. The religion of
\npatriotism, – this is the master idea of Bankim’s writings. It is already
\nforeshadowed in Devi Chaudhurani. <\/i>In Dharmatattwa <\/i>the idea and in
\nKrishnacharit <\/i>the picture of a perfect and many-sided Karmayoga is
\nsketched, the crown of which shall be work for one’s country and one’s kind. In
\nAnanda Moth. <\/i>this idea is the key-note of the whole <\/p>\n

\nPage-346<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

book and received its perfect lyrical expression in the great song which has
\nbecome the national anthem of United India. This is the second great service of
\nBankim to this country that he pointed out to it the way of salvation and gave
\nit the religion of patriotism. Of the new spirit which is leading the nation to
\nresurgence and independence, he is the inspirer and political Guru.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

        The third and supreme
\nservice of Bankim to his nation was that he gave us the vision of our Mother.
\nThe bare intellectual idea of the Motherland is not in itself a great driving
\nforce; the mere recognition of the desirability of freedom is not an inspiring
\nmotive. There are few Indians at present, whether loyalist, moderate or
\nnationalist in their political views, who do not recognise that the country has
\nclaims on them or that freedom in the abstract is a desirable thing. But most
\nof us, when it is a question between the claims of the country and other
\nclaims, do not in practice prefer the service of the country; and while many
\nmay have the wish to see freedom accomplished, few have the will to accomplish
\nit. There are other things which we hold dearer and which we fear to see
\nimperilled either in the struggle for freedom or by its accomplishment. It is
\nnot till the Motherland reveals herself to the eye of the mind as something
\nmore than a stretch of earth or a mass of individuals, it is not till she takes
\nshape as a great Divine and Maternal Power in a form of beauty that can
\ndominate the mind and seize the heart that these petty fears and hopes vanish
\nin the all-absorbing passion for the Mother and her service, and the patriotism
\nthat works miracles and saves a doomed nation is born. To some men it is given
\nto have that vision and reveal it to others. It was thirty-two years ago that
\nBankim wrote his great song and few listened; but in a sudden moment of
\nawakening from long delusions the people of Bengal looked round for the truth
\nand in a fated moment somebody sang Bande Mataram. <\/i>The Mantra had been
\ngiven and in a single day a whole people had been converted to the religion of
\npatriotism. The Mother had revealed herself. Once that vision has come to a
\npeople, there can be no rest, no peace, no further slumber till the temple has
\nbeen made ready, the image installed and the sacrifice offered. A great nation
\nwhich has had that vision can never again bend its neck in subjection to the
\nyoke of a conqueror.<\/p>\n

\nPage-347<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rishi Bankim Chandra       \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0  THERE are many who, lamenting the by- gone glories of this great and ancient nation, speak as if the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","wpcat-9-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}